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Great article. That Uber drivers of London alone have been accused of 32 sexual assaults in the past year [1] is hard to swallow. Also, it sounds like Uber wou

Great article. That Uber drivers of London alone have been accused of 32 sexual assaults in the past year [1] is hard to swallow. Also, it sounds like Uber would be better off targeting public outrage towards the mayor. Any thoughts on why they went after TfL and not where the power actually resides? [1] https://www.google.ca/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uber-drivers-accused-of-32-rapes-and-sex-attacks-on-london-passengers-a7037926.html%3famp https://www.google.ca/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uber...

AsyncAwait 9y ago
They started a petition [1], that is directed at the mayor. [1] https://www.change.org/p/save-your-uber-in-london-saveyouruber https://www.change.org/p/save-your-uber-in-london-saveyourub...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  >the livelihoods of 40,000 drivers Uber are fully supporting the livelihood of 40k drivers? Doesn't seem likely. They're depressing the market price whilst simultaneously creaming off more of that price for themselves, that surely leaves drivers over all worse off. What sort of pension are Uber's employees getting, the one's whose livelihood Uber are taking care of? What sort of holiday pay do they get? Do they get perks above the lowest legal level?
detaro 9y ago
TfL is a faceless bureaucracy, and while I think they don't have a terrible reputation many people have some reason to be unhappy about them. Makes an easier target than the mayor who is a quite popular figure and might be able to shrug off attacks against him personally relatively easily (e.g. by simply backing TfL without getting personally involved).
aaron695 9y ago
Of the 154 assults. So you could say the vast majority were not in Uber?
- corford 9y ago
  Read the article. It's not about the quantity of assaults, it's about Uber not reporting them to the police.
  - hycaria 9y ago
    I read this nowhere in the article, could you help me out ?
    - corford 9y ago
      Sure: "The letter concluded by pointing out that these weren’t the only incidents the Metropolitan Police had become aware of. In total, Uber had failed to report six sexual assaults, two public order offences and one assault to the police. This had lead to delays of up to 7 months before they were investigated. Particularly damning, with the public order offences this meant that in both cases the prosecution time limit had passed before the police became aware of them."
      - hycaria 9y ago
        I see, I think we're not discussing the same article ; you're probably refering to the article at the root (that I'm not done reading yet), not the one posted by the user a few posts above.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
That Uber drivers of London alone have been accused of 32 sexual assaults in the past year [1] is hard to swallow. How does that compare to the regular population?
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  It doesn't matter because Uber are the ones trying to get their license renewed. (What is it with the rampant "whataboutism" defending Uber?")
  - golergka 9y ago
    It's about fair treatment. If you get a parking ticket for going 5 over the limit, but sheriff's friend gets away free while going 30 over and drunk, is it "whataboutism"?
  - hycaria 9y ago
    It's not about defending Uber (never used the service in my life because I'm not lazy and dispendious), it's about the article from the independent being complete rubbish.
    - AsyncAwait 9y ago
      > never used the service in my life because I'm not lazy and dispendious If implying that those that use Uber are lazy, this is an absolutely unwarranted statement that I am pretty sure breaks HN guidelines.
      - hycaria 9y ago
        Wow, did I really break someone's feelings with that sentence ? It is a personal opinion but yes, using an expensive cab or the like instead of largely available public transportation (it's London) is laziness in my opinion. Is having a personal feeling and general impression from what I've see amongst my acquaintances, about the kind of behavior that brings people to use individual premium means of transportation, breaking HN guidelines ? Because yes that's what I'm implying but I phrased it not in a "universal truth" way but more in a "personal impression about an issue" way. Which seems a rather common attitude here. Also harassed no one during it (was not targeted at a specific user), so I have a hard time seeing what harm I've done here. I just added this sentence as a reminder that Uber is a completely unessential service, that its popularity just capitalizes on people's laziness imo, and that I couldn't care less if people suddently had to use their feet and share space and transportation again.
hycaria 9y ago
Oh wow, that article is so bad. >Uber drivers are accused of sexually assaulting or raping customers almost three times a month, according to new figures which have outraged rape campaigners. I could point out that accusation is not proof of guilt, but that's not what's bothering me the most. My problem with this article is that no referential is provided : frequency of accusations of others cab services providers (we have a count, no frequency) ? total number of fares at Uber vs other cabs (is it more than a fifth ?) ? Or alleged sexual assaults in London for a month ? Sometimes this bad journalism looks so deliberate...
- CamelCaseName 9y ago
  I think part of the problem is that these just occurred in 2016. In combination with Uber supposedly keeping information and not reporting assaults (according to the submitted article) it makes it very difficult to make a good comparison. Someone else asked how Uber assaults compare to the general population and I honestly can't find much apples-to-apples information.

AsyncAwait 9y ago

They started a petition [1], that is directed at the mayor. [1] https://www.change.org/p/save-your-uber-in-london-saveyouruber https://www.change.org/p/save-your-uber-in-london-saveyourub...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
>the livelihoods of 40,000 drivers Uber are fully supporting the livelihood of 40k drivers? Doesn't seem likely. They're depressing the market price whilst simultaneously creaming off more of that price for themselves, that surely leaves drivers over all worse off. What sort of pension are Uber's employees getting, the one's whose livelihood Uber are taking care of? What sort of holiday pay do they get? Do they get perks above the lowest legal level?

detaro 9y ago

TfL is a faceless bureaucracy, and while I think they don't have a terrible reputation many people have some reason to be unhappy about them. Makes an easier target than the mayor who is a quite popular figure and might be able to shrug off attacks against him personally relatively easily (e.g. by simply backing TfL without getting personally involved).

aaron695 9y ago

Of the 154 assults. So you could say the vast majority were not in Uber?

corford 9y ago
Read the article. It's not about the quantity of assaults, it's about Uber not reporting them to the police.
- hycaria 9y ago
  I read this nowhere in the article, could you help me out ?
  - corford 9y ago
    Sure: "The letter concluded by pointing out that these weren’t the only incidents the Metropolitan Police had become aware of. In total, Uber had failed to report six sexual assaults, two public order offences and one assault to the police. This had lead to delays of up to 7 months before they were investigated. Particularly damning, with the public order offences this meant that in both cases the prosecution time limit had passed before the police became aware of them."
    - hycaria 9y ago
      I see, I think we're not discussing the same article ; you're probably refering to the article at the root (that I'm not done reading yet), not the one posted by the user a few posts above.

tryingagainbro 9y ago

That Uber drivers of London alone have been accused of 32 sexual assaults in the past year [1] is hard to swallow. How does that compare to the regular population?

zimpenfish 9y ago
It doesn't matter because Uber are the ones trying to get their license renewed. (What is it with the rampant "whataboutism" defending Uber?")
- golergka 9y ago
  It's about fair treatment. If you get a parking ticket for going 5 over the limit, but sheriff's friend gets away free while going 30 over and drunk, is it "whataboutism"?
- hycaria 9y ago
  It's not about defending Uber (never used the service in my life because I'm not lazy and dispendious), it's about the article from the independent being complete rubbish.
  - AsyncAwait 9y ago
    > never used the service in my life because I'm not lazy and dispendious If implying that those that use Uber are lazy, this is an absolutely unwarranted statement that I am pretty sure breaks HN guidelines.
    - hycaria 9y ago
      Wow, did I really break someone's feelings with that sentence ? It is a personal opinion but yes, using an expensive cab or the like instead of largely available public transportation (it's London) is laziness in my opinion. Is having a personal feeling and general impression from what I've see amongst my acquaintances, about the kind of behavior that brings people to use individual premium means of transportation, breaking HN guidelines ? Because yes that's what I'm implying but I phrased it not in a "universal truth" way but more in a "personal impression about an issue" way. Which seems a rather common attitude here. Also harassed no one during it (was not targeted at a specific user), so I have a hard time seeing what harm I've done here. I just added this sentence as a reminder that Uber is a completely unessential service, that its popularity just capitalizes on people's laziness imo, and that I couldn't care less if people suddently had to use their feet and share space and transportation again.

hycaria 9y ago

Oh wow, that article is so bad. >Uber drivers are accused of sexually assaulting or raping customers almost three times a month, according to new figures which have outraged rape campaigners. I could point out that accusation is not proof of guilt, but that's not what's bothering me the most. My problem with this article is that no referential is provided : frequency of accusations of others cab services providers (we have a count, no frequency) ? total number of fares at Uber vs other cabs (is it more than a fifth ?) ? Or alleged sexual assaults in London for a month ? Sometimes this bad journalism looks so deliberate...

CamelCaseName 9y ago
I think part of the problem is that these just occurred in 2016. In combination with Uber supposedly keeping information and not reporting assaults (according to the submitted article) it makes it very difficult to make a good comparison. Someone else asked how Uber assaults compare to the general population and I honestly can't find much apples-to-apples information.